Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley at the ACMAs. Dick Clark Productions' country awards drew more viewers than the Golden Globes. Photo: Getty Images

On paper, it looked like a great idea.

When Joanna Coles, the longtime editor-in-chief of Marie Claire was moved from that Hearst-owned title to the company’s crown jewel, Cosmopolitan, replacing retiring longtime editor Kate White last September, executives thought they had a perfect replacement at Marie Claire: Anne Fulenwider

Fulenwider had served as executive editor at Marie Claire under Coles before jumping to rival Condé Nast to be editor-in-chief of Brides. But it has not been a splendid honeymoon since she was named to top the Marie Claire masthead.

In fact, one departing staffer described it as a “nightmare.”

“In general, the atmosphere isn’t good,” said one departee. “A lot of people chose to leave or were let go.”

One source said that close to 20 have left since September — although the company insists it is less than half that number.

The disillusionment may have started early on when Coles was allowed to raid her old title, taking her personal assistant, Sergio Kletnoy, and three top editors: Web Director Abby Gardner, Executive Editor Joyce Chang and Entertainment Editor Dana Stern.

Fulenwider opened her first staff meeting by telling staffers that “everyone is replaceable.”

“She was probably trying to say it in a reassuring way, but it came out the opposite,” said one former staffer who was present at the meeting.

In what has to sting, three of her staffers were soon poached by Cindi Leive, editor of arch rival Glamour at Condé Nast. They include Beauty Director Ying Chu, Senior Editor Sophia Moura and Beauty Editor Maureen Choi.

“Everyone is interviewing,” added the source, who predicted more defections in the weeks ahead.

This week, Fulenwider finally found a replacement for the web director, drafting Deanne Kaczerski, who was in-house at Elle.com and realbeauty.com, to take the job that Gardener left nearly seven months ago.

Fulenwider’s assistant, Ashley Ross, recently left for an associate editor job at shape.com over at American Media.

“This is just normal churn,” said a Hearst spokesperson. “Some of those folks were very junior executive assistants looking to take the next step. And Anne has made a large number of hires and promotions.”

He pointed to Fulenwider’s new executive editor Riza Cruz, who came from Vogue, and said that freelancer Tracy Shaffer was added as the magazine’s first West Coast editor.

On the existing staff, high profile-fashion director and “Project Runway” star Nina Garcia was promoted to creative director. Features Director Lea Goldman was named features and special projects director.

To replace the Glamour defectors, Erin Flaherty was promoted to beauty and health director. Jennifer Goldstein arrived from Prevention as executive beauty director.

Whatever churn there has been on the editorial side, advertisers seem to love the magazine. Last year, which was almost entirely under Coles’ watch, ad pages were up 11.9 percent from the year before.

This year, through the April edition, Media Industry Newsletter said its ad pages were up 10.6 percent to 478.66.

Hearst as a corporation was up 6 percent in ad pages in the first quarter and is so far outperforming its in-house peers.

Veterans point out that Coles’ early years at Marie Claire were also tumultuous before she developed into a multi-media super star over the past four years.

Time for CEO

The search for a Time Inc. CEO has suddenly shifted into high gear with numerous sources saying that Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner CEO, wants to name a replacement before the summer. “That would be the goal,” said a source.

Because of the drive to get it done in the six weeks between now and Memorial Day, several insiders are seen as having a better shot at the top job than previously believed.

The trio of insiders includes: David Geithner, brother of former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner; Howard Averill, the chief legal officer and one of the gang of three that forced out former CEO Jack Griffin; and Todd Larsen, a former Dow Jones president whose grandfather, Roy Larsen, worked with Henry Luce at the founding of Time.

Among the outside names being floated are Greg Coleman, a print veteran who served as president of the Huffington Post at the time it was gobbled up by AOL, and Eileen Naughton, once a Time magazine president who is now a high-ranking executive at Google.

Time Inc. had a slight increase in ad pages in the first quarter, up 0.6 percent to 4,468.93, from 4,441.29 in the same quarter a year ago.